2013 Senior League Division Series: Dodgers @ Braves Game 2

Last night the Los Angeles Dodgers took the Atlanta Braves to school on the Braves’ home field winning

Clayton Kershaw was 7 months old the last time the Los Angeles Dodgers won a championship. All the members of the team know the year, Kershaw said, because every day, someone reminds them: the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988 – and have never been back. [..]

The easiest way for the Dodgers to do it is to pitch as Kershaw did in a 6-1 victory on Thursday. He humbled the Braves for seven innings at Turner Field, slinging fastballs, snapping curveballs and asserting the Dodgers’ presence as, perhaps, the favorite to win it all.

Kershaw allowed three hits, three walks and a run in his first postseason victory, becoming the first Dodger with 12 strikeouts in a postseason game since Sandy Koufax in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series at Yankee Stadium.

Tonight Zack Greinke, who bats and throws right handed, is the starting pitcher for the Dodgers.

Starting on the mound tonight for Braves will be Mike Minor who pitches left but bats righie.

The Dodgers and Braves continue their best-of-five National League Division Series with an ace-in-the-hole opposing an ace-in-training.

Really, a majority of Major League clubs could send out Zack Greinke or Mike Minor in Game 1 of a postseason and folks wouldn’t bat an eye. But the way Clayton Kershaw pitched all season and the way Kris Medlen pitched down the stretch dictated that both of these ballclubs would be trotting out an overqualified No. 2. On paper, it put both clubs in a comfortable position.

Now that we’ve seen the way Game 1 played out in reality, however, we can safely say the onus in Game 2 (6 p.m. ET Friday, TBS) is now on Minor, especially, to pitch like the ace he has so often resembled in this 2013 season.